| Newsletter 
                No. 1November 24, 2006
 Severe health problems associated with the U.S. 
                military’s use of chemical defoliants during the Vietnam War have 
                long been an issue of concern for the veteran’s community. These 
                chemical weapons, popularly known as Agent Orange, were heavily 
                contaminated with dioxin, TCDD, one of the most deadly cancer 
                causing carcinogens known to man.
 Over many years, Vietnam veterans who began to get sick, have 
                birth defected children and often died, have struggled to have 
                the Veterans Administration provide testing, treatment and compensation 
                for those affected.
  
                
  American 
                  veterans delegation (l-r) David Cline, Ralph Steele, Joan Duffy, 
                  Frank Corcoran and Dan Shea behind “Mrs. Vietnam 2005”, Doan 
                  Thi Kim Hong, performing songs for Agent Orange affected children 
                  at hospice near Cu Chi.
 This struggle began in the 1970’s and went through many twists 
                and turns as the companies who manufactured these chemical weapons 
                and the US government who ordered and deployed them, tried to 
                deny any responsibility and even claimed that they were harmless.
 Eventually in 1984, the chemical companies who manufactured Agent 
                Orange agreed to pay $180 million in damages to veterans and finally 
                Congress passed the Agent Orange Act of 1991recognizing the negative 
                health effects of these defoliants and acknowledging certain conditions 
                for VA medical treatment and disability compensation..
 
 Since that time, more conditions have been acknowledged but many 
                others are still not recognized.
 
 There have been lawsuits also from veterans who served in the 
                South Korean, Australian and New Zealand militaries under the 
                US command.
 
 But one group, the largest number affected, who have never received 
                any form of Justice have been the people of Vietnam, both NVA/VC 
                and ARVN soldiers and many times more civilians who were trapped 
                in the war zones.
 
 In 2004, the suffering Vietnamese formed the Vietnam Association 
                of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) and initiated a lawsuit 
                in the US courts against the companies who manufactured these 
                poisonous chemical weapons. That case is schedule to be heard 
                in a federal appealate court in NYC this fall.
 
 In support of the Vietnamese victims, we have formed the Vietnam 
                Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign and are working 
                with them and other Agent Orange victims throughout the world 
                to continue this struggle until all those affected receive some 
                Justice.
 
 At the end of March, I lead a delegation of four other US veterans 
                who are Agent Orange victims, Joan Duffy, Ralph Steele, Dan Shea 
                and Frank Corcoran, to Hanoi for an International Conference on 
                AO, that included participates from Australia, South Korea, New 
                Zealand, Canada as well as support groups from France, England 
                and several other European countries.
 
 After that we travelled to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Cu Chi and 
                Hue were we were hosted by VAVA chapters and met with victims 
                and visited hospices and friendship villages where some of the 
                many thousands of the most seriously deformed AO children are 
                cared for, some run by international veterans support, religious 
                organizations or local governments and hospitals.
 
 This issue is an ongoing and unresolved legacy of the US war in 
                Vietnam and is something that needs to be addressed and resolved 
                if we are even going to heal the wounds of that period in our 
                nation’s history.
 
 To find out more about and get involved in the campaign here in 
                the United States, contact the:
 VIETNAM AGENT ORANGE RELIEF & RESPONSIBILITY CAMPAIGN
 P.O. BOX 303, Prince Station,
 New York, NY 10012
 or visit the web site at www.vn-agentorange.org
 
  
                 U.S. 
                  Air Force Nurse Joan Duffy addresses International Conference 
                  in Vietnam in March 2006. Joan died on Nov. 17, 2006 from Agent 
                  Orange related cancer. RIP
 Speech given by 
                Joan (Newberry) Duffy to the International Conference of Victims 
                of Agent Orange/dioxin held in Hanoi, Vietnam on March 28-29, 
                2006. Today, I will be speaking to you about one of the most devastating 
                materials that the United States military ever used: I am, of 
                course, referring to Agent Orange which contained the highly toxic 
                contaminant, dioxin. The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam produced 
                unacceptable threats to life, violated international law, and 
                created toxic wastelands that continued to kill and injure civilian 
                populations long after the war was over. Agent Orange was a true 
                weapon of mass destruction and its use should be considered a 
                crime against humanity. Before I begin my presentation, I would like to tell you a little 
                bit about myself.... I was commissioned a 2/LT in the United States 
                Air Force Nurse Corps shortly after graduating from college. I 
                was sent to a large military base called Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam 
                a year later. While there, I was too busy to notice that I never 
                heard a bird sing, and in fact, the only living things I remember 
                seeing (other than people) were roaches: not too reassuring considering 
                that roaches were reported to be the first things to crawl out 
                from under the rubble at Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atom 
                bombs were dropped. At the hospital where I worked, there was 
                a brick wall outside the emergency room that was covered in dead 
                vines. I learned years later that the perimeter of Cam Ranh Bay 
                was sprayed with Agent Orange on a regular basis because it was 
                considered such an important military installation. Like most 
                Vietnam Veterans, I knew nothing about Agent Orange until years 
                later when I read about veterans with health problems who had 
                begun to make the connection between Agent Orange exposure and 
                illness. So how did this tragedy of Agent Orange begin? During World War II, Prof Kraus, Chairman of the Department of 
                Botany at the University of Chicago, discovered that a chemical 
                named 2,4 D could kill vegetation within 24-48 hours by causing 
                plants to experience sudden, uncontrolled growth. Thinking this 
                discovery might be of some use in the war effort, Kraus contacted 
                the War Department, but Army scientists were not interested in 
                it at that time.Civilian scientists, however, found Kraus’ discovery to be of 
                use in everyday life after the war.
 Chemical sprays that included 2,4 D were put on the market for 
                use in controlling weeds in yards and along roads and railroads. The US Army continued to experiment with 2,4 D during the 1950's 
                and late in the decade, they found that mixing it with another 
                chemical resulted in the creation of an herbicide that had an 
                almost immediate toxic effect on foliage. What they didn’t realize 
                or what they chose to ignore, was that the second chemical, 2,4,5 
                T, contained dioxin, a molecule that the US Environmental Protection 
                Agency would later call one of the most potentially dangerous 
                known to man. The toxicity of dioxin is such that it is capable 
                of killing newborn mammals and fish at levels as small as 5 parts 
                per trillion (or one ounce in 6 million tons). It’s toxic properties 
                are enhanced by the fact that it can enter the body through the 
                skin, the lungs, or through the mouth. Once inside the body, dioxin 
                rapidly binds to protein molecules in the cell membranes called 
                receptors: the job of these receptors is to move substances into 
                the cells. By binding with these receptors, dioxin is rapidly 
                transported into the cytoplasm and nucleus of the cell where it 
                then wreaks havoc for years to come. Dioxin literally modifies 
                the functioning and genetic mechanism of the cell and affects 
                a wide range of organ and metabolic functions. It is a potent 
                multi-system poison that is virtually indestructible in most environments. 
                One of the most dangerous characteristics is that dioxin is not 
                water soluble, making it almost impossible to excrete: if it were 
                water soluble, it could be excreted in the urine and perspiration. 
                However, because dioxin crosses the placental barrier, levels 
                of dioxin in pregnant women are reduced, sadly for the unborn 
                baby. In laboratory animals, dioxin has been shown to cause cancer, 
                birth defects and genetic damage. Considering how toxic dioxin is, it is truly shocking that after 
                extremely minimal experimentation, Agent Orange and other herbicides 
                were shipped to Vietnam in 1961 to aid in anti guerilla efforts. 
                These herbicides were used to destroy food sources and eliminate 
                foliage that concealed enemy troop movements. On January 13, 1962, 
                3 United States Air Force planes left Tan Son Nhut’s airfield 
                to begin Operation Ranch Hand to defoliate portions of South Vietnam’s 
                heavily forested countryside. Nine months later, by Sept 1962, 
                the spraying program had intensified, resulting in the defoliation 
                of almost 9000 acres of mangrove forests. Over the next 9 years, 
                an estimated 19 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed throughout 
                Vietnam at a rate 6 to 25 times that suggested by the chemical 
                manufacturers. The results of the spraying was there for all to 
                see: over the door of the ready room for Ranch Hand pilots at 
                Tan Son Nhut’s Airport in Saigon hung a sign that said “Only you 
                can prevent forests”. Unfortunately, the Agent Orange used in Vietnam was much more 
                highly contaminated with dioxin than that used in the United States. 
                This was the direct result of the US military pressuring the chemical 
                manufacturers to speed up production of Agent O range because 
                the military was using ever increasing quantities of the herbicide, 
                practically with abandon. In an effort to work faster and increase 
                production of Agent Orange, the chemical companies paid little 
                attention to quality control issues and the Agent Orange destined 
                for Vietnam became much more highly contaminated with dioxin as 
                the result of sloppy, hasty manufacturing. Unknown to the millions of American soldiers and Vietnamese civilians 
                being exposed to the herbicides, the chemical manufacturers were 
                well aware of the long term toxic effects, but they sought to 
                suppress the information from the government and the public, fearing 
                a negative backlash. Of particular concern to the chemical companies 
                was Agent Orange which contained dioxin. Publicly they maintained 
                that dioxin occurred naturally in the environment and was not 
                harmful to humans. Privately they knew otherwise, as evidenced by scientists involved 
                in Operation Ranch Hand and documents uncovered recently in the 
                US National Archives which paint a disturbing picture. There are 
                strong indications that not only were the military officials aware 
                as early as 1967 of the limited efficacy of chemical defoliation, 
                they also knew of the potential long term health risks of frequent 
                spraying and they sought to keep that information from the public. 
                Dr, James Clary was an Air Force scientist in Vietnam who helped 
                to write the history of Operation Ranch Hand. Clary wrote in a 
                1988 letter to a member of congress investigating Agent Orange 
                that  
                "we were aware of the potential for damage due to dioxin 
                  contamination in Agent Orange. We were even aware that the military 
                  formulation had a higher dioxin concentration than the civilian 
                  version due to the speed of manufacture . However because the 
                  material was to be used on the enemy, none of us were overly 
                  concerned. We never considered a scenario in which our own personnel 
                  would become contaminated with the herbicide." While the debate over the danger of Agent Orange and dioxin heated 
                up in scientific circles, the United States Air Force continued 
                flying defoliation sorties. People on the ground continued to 
                live in a mist of toxic herbicides. They slept with it, drank 
                it in their water, ate it in their food, breathed it in their 
                lungs, absorbed it through their skin. Some of the US troops used 
                the empty Agent Orange drums as barbeques: others stored food 
                in them. Still others rigged the residue- laden drums for showers. Finally in 1971, the US Surgeon General prohibited the use of 
                Agent Orange for home use and on June 30, 1971, all US defoliation 
                efforts in Vietnam were terminated. As veterans attempted to settle back into civilian life, some 
                of them began to develop unusual health problems. There were skin 
                and liver diseases and what appeared to be an abnormal number 
                of cancers to soft tissue organs such as the lungs and stomach. 
                There also seemed to be an unusually high number of birth defects 
                among children born to Vietnam Veterans. Some veterans experienced 
                wild mood swings while others developed a painful skin condition 
                called cloracne. Many of these veterans were found to have high 
                levels of dioxin in their blood., but scientists, doctors and 
                the United States government insisted that there was no link between 
                their illnesses and their exposure to Agent Orange. By the early 1980's, the denials of the US Government, the Veterans 
                Administration, the US military and the chemical companies regarding 
                Agent Orange/dioxin toxicity began to fall apart as communities 
                such as Times Beach, Missouri entered the public eye. Times Beach, 
                Missouri was an idyllic little community about 20 miles from St 
                Louis. Unknown to the residents of Times Beach, dioxin-laced oil 
                had been sprayed on the town’s roads to keep the dust down during 
                the 1970s. The contamination was so bad that the government decided 
                that the only way to save the town’s residents from further damage 
                was to buy them out and move them out. In early 1983, the US government 
                spent $33 million buying the homes and businesses in Times Beach 
                and relocating its 2200 residents. Three years later, in 1986, 
                the Centers for Disease Control released a report that showed 
                that mobile home residents located near Times Beach, were suffering 
                liver and immune system damage as a result of their exposure to 
                the dioxin-laced oil that had been sprayed on the dirt roads in 
                1971. Times Beach remains a ghost town even today because of dioxin 
                contamination. Other towns and cities became contaminated as a 
                result of chemical spills or manufacturing emissions: some of 
                them needed to be evacuated like Times Beach. Love Canal in Niagra 
                Falls, New York, Sevesco, Italy, Pensacola, Florida, and the entire 
                city of Midland, Michigan have very high levels of dioxin. While 
                the government was paying off residents of Times Beach because 
                of dioxin contamination, it continued to deny that Vietnam Veterans 
                who had been exposed to Agent Orange and dioxin were at risk. All in all, many entities conspired to keep the truth about Agent 
                Orange and dioxin covered up: the Centers for Disease Control, 
                scientists, chemical companies, The White House, the Veterans 
                Administration, the US military, especially the United States 
                Air Force. In the end, the truth won out. The Veterans Administration 
                has been forced to admit that Agent Orange exposure/dioxin exposure 
                causes a multitude of health problems for which they must compensate 
                veterans. These conditions include: cancers such as leukemia, 
                soft tissue sarcoma, cancers of the lung, larynx, bronchus, trachea, 
                prostate, lymphomas, myeloma, Hodgkins and non Hodgkins lymphoma. 
                Other conditions for which veterans are compensated are: nervous 
                system disorders such as neuropathy and sensory impairment, metabolic 
                disorders such as Type II diabetes, liver and kidney damage, skin 
                problems such as cloracne, The Veterans Administration also must 
                compensate veterans’ children who suffer from mutations and birth 
                defects such as spina bifida and other neural tube defects, cleft 
                palates, hydrocephalus, esophageal and intestinal deformities, 
                clubfoot, fused fingers and toes, and congenital heart disease. Agent Orange is NOT a conventional weapon: it is, instead, a 
                weapon of mass destruction. All international law on warfare for 
                the past 100 years has attempted to limit violence to combatants 
                and to prevent the use of cruel and unfocused weapons. International 
                agreements and conventions have tried to protect civilians and 
                non-combatants from the scourge of war, to outlaw the destruction 
                of the environment and to protect the food supply in order to 
                safeguard life on this earth. Agent Orange is precisely the kind 
                of weapon prohibited by international law for more than a century 
                because of its unconfined, death-dealing effects. Surely it must be clear to any thinking human being that we can 
                no longer afford to seek violent solutions to the world’s problems 
                because our weapons have become so dangerous and toxic that they 
                kill soldiers and civilians both during the war and for years 
                and years after the war is supposedly over. I urge you as fellow 
                human beings to seek justice for the victims of Agent Orange. I implore you to do this for the sake of Vietnam’s children and 
                grandchildren, but also for the sake of the world’s children and 
                grandchildren. What we do now, here, to seek justice for the victims 
                of Agent Orange could very well establish an international precedent 
                that will hold governments and corporations responsible and accountable 
                for their actions and protect future generations from the horror 
                of such weapons.  
                 Some 
                  of the children being cared for at Cu Chi facility run by the 
                  Catholic Church. These children are a continuing legacy of the 
                  use of chemical weapons by the U.S.
 Speech given by David 
                Cline to the International Conference of Agent Orange Victims.
 First let me thank the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent 
                Orange/Dioxin for organizing this international conference and 
                to the Agent Orange Vets from Korea, Australia, New Zealand and 
                Canada who have traveled here to participate.
 
 The US delegation I am leading is made up of Agent Orange vets 
                Frank Corcoran, Joan Duffy, Ralph Steele and Dan Shea.
 
 I was an infantryman with the 25th Infantry Division in Cu Chi 
                and Tay Ninh in 1967 and was wounded 3 times but do not suffer 
                from dioxin related health conditions myself.
 
 When I came back from the war, I had knowledge of the use of Agent 
                Orange from having seen sprayed areas and knew that they destroyed 
                nature, but had no knowledge of the negative effects these defoliants 
                had on human beings.
 
 I remember in 1969 a veteran I knew named Jeff Sharlett died of 
                cancer at age 27 in the Miami, Florida Veterans Hospital and thinking 
                it was strange that someone so young had cancer.
 
 Over the years other friends of mine got sick or had deformed 
                children or sometimes died. Mike Keegan and John Miffin who died 
                and John and Rena Kopystenski who had several children with birth 
                defects are among them. So this issue has always been personal 
                to me.
 
 In 1977, a woman who worked as a claims representative at the 
                Chicago Veterans Administration named Maude DeVictor was the first 
                person to really put two and two together when she witnessed the 
                VA higher-ups denying veterans claims and covering up their health 
                problems and the connections to dixon exposure.
 
 The next year, 1978, a veteran named Paul Reutershan who was sick 
                with cancer got on television and said "my government killed 
                me in Vietnam and I didn't even know it". He began a lawsuit 
                against the chemical companies who manufactured Agent Orange, 
                Blue, White, Purple etc. but he never lived to see that lawsuit 
                completed because he died within the year.
 
 The reason that this lawsuit was started was because the VA was 
                denying veterans claims for medical treatment and compensation 
                and according to US law (the Feres Doctrine), former military 
                personell cannot sue the government for these type of claims.
 
 From 1978-1984 the lawsuit continued and was eventually settled, 
                although many veterans opposed the settlement, for 180 million 
                dollars. Sadly many veterans got very little of that money since 
                the army of lawyers who got involved got a good portion of it 
                in legal fees.
 
 I have been a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War since 
                1970 and that organization played a critical role in launching 
                the movement for justice for Agent Orange vets, supporting Maude 
                Devictor who became the godmother of the movement, recruiting 
                veterans to joining the lawsuit and raising general public awareness 
                of this issue.
 
 But we always believed that while the chemical companies had responsibility 
                and should be held liable, the primary responsibility lay with 
                the US government which ordered and continued to use these poisons 
                after they were aware of the negative effects on people. Instead 
                of changing course, they covered up the facts and kept using them 
                until 1971. After that they gave their remaining supplies to the 
                former Army of the Republic of Vietnam who continued to use them 
                until 1975 when that regime ceased to exist.
 
 In VVAW, our demand has always been Testing, Treatment and Compensation 
                for Agent Orange Victims. We never thought the lawsuit against 
                the chemical companies was the answer, but rather a way to continue 
                putting pressure on the US government.
 
 Finally progress was made on that front when in 1991, Congress 
                passed the Agent Orange Act, acknowledging several conditions 
                as being dioxin related for purposes of medical treatment and 
                disability compensation. It also established a mechanism for the 
                National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine to review 
                new studies and make recommendations to the Secretary of the Veterans 
                Administration for expanding the recognized conditions.
 
 Currently there are thirteen conditions acknowledged by the VA 
                including two conditions among veterans children but over 27 conditions 
                have been rejected since there was a finding by the IOM of not 
                enough scientific research to indicate a connection to dioxin 
                exposure.
 
 So many veterans are still not being treated with any fairness. 
                And how does someone give justice to all those who have died? 
                The hidden casualties of the Vietnam War continue to grow but 
                the struggle continues as well.
 
 And today we need to talk about the other side of the coin, not 
                just American, Korean, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian veterans 
                but the people of Vietnam as well.
 
 Remember also that these chemicals were also used in parts of 
                Cambodia and Laos as well as along the DMZ in Korea and in Panama.
 
 In the United States we began the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief 
                & Responsibility campaign to support the efforts of VAVA and 
                join with concerned veterans and people, in the U.S. and other 
                countries to demand Justice for ALL Agent Orange Victims!
 
 While the Campaign is sponsored by Veterans For Peace, it is made 
                up of war veterans, Vietnamese-Americans, peace and labor activists, 
                environmentalists and other friends of Vietnam. We are supporting 
                the international petition drive in support of the VAVA lawsuit 
                and recently sponsored a 10 city speaking tour by 4 VAVA members.
 
 We are also planning to encourage sympathetic representatives 
                and senators to introduce legislation in Congress for the US government 
                to step up to the plate and provide compensation and medical assistance, 
                if not for political reasons, then for moral and humanitarian 
                purposes. It is time to really heal the wounds of that war, not 
                to ignore them or let them fade into history.
 
 Let me make on last point. This is a struggle to expose and end 
                the use of chemical weapons by all nations but especially by my 
                government. This is not just about something that happened over 
                30 years ago. Today the Bush administration has led our country 
                into another war, this time in Iraq and has used Depleted Uranium 
                weapons that will poison US troops and Iraqi citizens. They have 
                also used White Phosphorous bombs against whole cities like Fallujah.
 
 It is time for humanity to demand an end to these weapons as part 
                of our efforts to abolish war. That is what Veterans For Peace 
                is pledged to work for. That will only come through the determined 
                efforts of all of us, throughout the world.
 
 The great American abolitionist Fredrick Douglass once said:
 
                "If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those 
                  who profess to favor freedom yet depreciate agitation, are men 
                  who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain 
                  without the thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without 
                  the awful roar of its many waters.This struggle may be a moral 
                  one, or it may be a physical one, but it must be a struggle. 
                  Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it 
                  never will" With that as our watchword, lets make this conference a call 
                to all the people of the world. JUSTICE FOR ALL AGENT ORANGE VICTIMS! 
 FINAL APPEAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL 
                CONFERENCE OF VICTIMS OF AGENT ORANGE/DIOXIN
 We victims of Agent Orange/dioxin and other toxic chemicals, 
                together with supporters and scientists from the United States, 
                Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, New Zealand, 
                Russia, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, and Vietnam participating 
                in the International Conference on Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin 
                held in Hanoi, Vietnam on March 28th and 29th 2006, make the following 
                appeal to the international community: We have discussed the effects of Agent Orange contaminated with 
                dioxin and other toxic chemicals on human life and health, and 
                the sufferings of those affected. Based on thisexchange of views, we unanimously confirm the following:
 
                During the war waged 
                  in Vietnam, the US chemical companies manufactured and supplied 
                  millions of liters of toxic chemicals disguised as defoliants 
                  or herbicides. Those chemicals contained high levels of dioxin. 
                  They were an utterly lethal substance.Those toxic chemicals 
                  destroyed the environment, millions of acres of forests, leading 
                  to an imbalanced ecology, great loss of timber resources and 
                  the disappearance of several animal species as well as precious 
                  forest vegetation. As a consequence, natural disasters such 
                  as flood, erosion and drought have become more common and impacted 
                  severely on agriculture, the main source of subsistence for 
                  South Vietnamese residents.However, the worst 
                  effect of those toxic chemicals is the harm to human life and 
                  health of those exposed to them. Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin 
                  and other toxic chemicals consist of:a- Millions of Vietnamese living in their homes and members 
                  of the liberation armed forces, and those working for the former 
                  Saigon regime and armed forces, an ally of the US at that time.
 b- Various investigations and scientific studies (frequently 
                  with participation of foreign and American scientists) have 
                  demonstrated that Vietnamese victims have suffered a variety 
                  of serious diseases – even far more and worse than the dioxin-related 
                  diseases listed by the US National Academy of Sciences Institute 
                  of Medicine between 1994 and 1995. In addition, many female 
                  victims have experienced reproductive problems. Many of them 
                  have been deprived of the ability to bear children and to experience 
                  the joy of being a mother.
 c- The most painful effect, however, is that Agent Orange/dioxin 
                  has already harmed the next generation of children and will 
                  do the same to the following ones. Many children have been born 
                  without the experience of war but have deformed bodies and can 
                  never enjoy the simplest experience of happiness – that is to 
                  live as an ordinary human being
 For the above-said reasons, victims of Agent Orange/dioxin and 
                their families are among the poorest and most unhappy of the society. 
                Many thousands of victims have died without justice for themselves 
                and their families.  |